(Newser)
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No matter the outcome of America's upcoming health care debates, costs are going to keep rising—and that’s a sign of success, David Brown writes in the Washington Post. Medical treatments are improving for dozens of ailments, and so far Americans are willing to pay. But "we are on a collision course between our wish to live longer, healthier lives, and our capacity to pay for that wish," writes Brown.

Throughout history, humans have worked mostly to pay for food, but that era is over in countries like the US, where the average person spends less than 10% of income on eating—and 16% on health care. “Health care is the new food,” Brown writes. "We'll cut corners" to pay for it, he says. "We'll complain. And then we'll find other corners to cut and reluctantly pay still more."

fedup, I agree with you. The medical profession is so lousy her in the US You go and it's another pill, and don't question me. Something has to be done or this nation is doomed.

Guest

Jan 10, 2009 11:30 PM CST

This article gets me. I have worked in the medical field and for the past few years, I have seen nothing but bad care. Nurses who are only in the medical profession for money, doctors with egos and greed, who just push medicine and don't get to the root of the problem so you won't have to keep coming back. You get doctors going overseas and giving free care to people in africa and then coming back to the states and turning their noses up at people who can't afford to pay high prices for crummy service. Granted there are a few good doctors left, but technology hasn't made much of these diseases any better.